Of Cloaks and Cigarettes
by The Luggage
Summary: Fifty prompts, fifty sentences. Vincent Valentine is a man of few words, which was perfect for this, really. CidVincenty in places, which means slash. Rated for Cid's mouth. Complete.


**AN:** Inspiration for these was borrowed from the LJ community 1character, so while the sentences are mine, the prompts are not. There's a Cid/Vincent flavour here, 'cause I do love that 'ship. Also, there's a fair amount of swearing. Hey, it's Cid...

**Disclaimer: **And if the prompts aren't mine, then I guess neither are the characters. Damn...

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01 – Package

During his (long past) career as a Turk, Vincent had delivered many packages; as he stared somewhat blankly at Cloud, he realized he'd never received one, especially one where the return address read "Fuck off, he's not allowed to return the goddamn thing!"

02 – Obscure

It was when even Cid wanted to know what the hell he was humming that Vincent realized his taste in music was not just outdated, but downright obscure.

03 – Skeleton

"Cid…this sled…you're sure it's safe?"

04 – Nurse

The nurses all loved Vincent – he was unfailingly polite, undemanding and so very pretty, and Cid laughed his ass off when he found out they had a schedule worked out, so as to give them all equal time with "that gorgeous man in room 44."

05 – Domino

It was only when Cid pulled down the collar of his cape that he realized it had been a mask, for he felt naked without it.

06 – Thaw

"Cid, please don't use the Ice materia in the fridge - biting into a frozen apple is very unpleasant."

07 – Waves

Something about the way the waves kept rolling in, as constant as the tide, was very soothing – of course, the way Cid kept tossing Yuffie and Cloud into them didn't really help.

08 – Burglar

It wasn't very often that a burglar dared to break into the _Highwind_; the last time it happened, he'd gotten about five steps inside, when he looked up and saw two glowing red lights directly in front of him.

09 – Frame

When asked about the frame around his window, Vincent simply replied that he preferred the real world to any static picture.

10 – Carpet

Vincent had never seen the point of having a carpet, as it was far too difficult getting the blood out.

11 – Insect

After the cursing subsided, Cid wanted to know why the _fuck_ Vincent wasn't affected, so he silently held up a can of industrial strength bug spray.

12 – Mentor

Cid liked to think of himself as a sort of twisted mentor towards the young ones in the group; Vincent counted himself lucky if he was able to get to them before Cid.

13 – Spirit

He didn't want his spirit to be unbeatable, _ever_, because then it would mean Chaos had won.

14 - Wax

Vincent wasn't quite sure how he'd been convinced down to the ship's hold, but he _was_ sure that Cid had been showing him how to wax a motorcycle for the past three hours, and was showing no signs of slowing down.

15 - Trash

Cid was Not Amused when Vincent instituted a recycling policy.

16 - Womb

Cloud once asked him, very tentatively, what he'd been like before Hojo, before the stasis; Vincent thought about it for a very long time, then answered that it didn't matter, he'd changed and developed so much in the coffin that he was, essentially, a new person.

17 - Burn

Really, he had nothing against fire; he just wasn't all that fond of cigarette burns on his cloak.

18 - Flash

In a flash of dramatically convenient lightning, the thing before the burglar was starkly illuminated in black and white: a wild tangle of hair, a black pit where mouth and nose should have been, and a cloak that moved in a most unsettling manner.

19 - Anima

"'Fess up Vincent, you're really a bird or something, because there is no other fuckin' way you could fuckin' perch like that all the damn time!"

20 - Gamble

It had been a gamble, joining Cloud and his merry men, but the payoff had been worth it a hundred times over.

21 - Statue

"Vincent…you don't have to stand so fuckin' still all the time, you're not in that damn coffin anymore."

22 - Perfume

He might smell like cigarettes, oil, grease and leather, but it's close enough to perfume for Vincent.

23 - Wine

Vincent hadn't been able to drink wine since before the stasis, because every time Hojo visited him, he drank a glass after he peeled off the bloody gloves.

24 - Reflection

Distantly, the burglar realized that he needed fresh pants, but his warped and bloody reflection was now moving closer to him, and there really wasn't time for that at the moment.

25 - Take

"Yuffie…please return Cloud and my cape, and we'll say nothing more about it."

26 - Magic

When Cid finally snapped and demanded to know how the _hell_ he could perch anywhere he felt like it, Vincent gave him a mysterious smirk and answered, "Magic."

27 - Fragment

The last fragments of the burglar's courage dissolved like water on a hot stove when he saw the claw-tipped metal gauntlet reaching for him from the blackness - he fled the ship faster than a chocobo on a speed-potion.

28 - Cats and Dogs

Vincent had never seen the point of pets, but when Cid brought home a kitten and a puppy, he thought that maybe he could learn.

29 - Chord

Cid once asked Vincent to sing "just a little song, dammit" – after three bar fights, five horribly mangled chords and more booze than was healthy, they made a solemn pact to never speak of it again.

30 - Flinch

Cid never flinched, and Vincent had never been so grateful to anyone.

31 - Rush

Vincent preferred to savour life, Cid had trouble sitting still, but they still made it work.

32 - Jester

The last time he'd attempted a joke, the only one to laugh had been Cid, but that was because everyone else had passed out from copious amounts of alcohol.

33 - Haven

Home wasn't a place, it was people, and as corny as he knew it was, he wouldn't trade it for anything.

34 - Dusk

Early evening was Vincent's favorite time of day, as the fading light stole the colour and intensity from his eyes, leaving them as dark and normal as Yuffie's or Barret's.

35 - Hum

Vincent wasn't even allowed to hum, not after the Night Of Which They Did Not Speak.

36 - Indulgence

"No Yuffie, you may not adopt my cloak and name it Fang," Vincent stated flatly.

37 - Freezer

After they made it back to the ship, Vincent pulled Cid aside, and told him in no uncertain terms that he was never, ever going shopping with Yuffie or Tifa again.

38 - Passage

He had to take Yuffie aside one night and let her know that Cloud was not to be bartered for anything, no, not even protection from 'unexpected' bandit attacks.

39 - Coast

Vincent never did learn to trust the so-called autopilot.

40 - Keepsake

Hojo had given it to him as some form of sick joke that only he understood, but Vincent wore his cloak because he would never, ever let that bastard win again.

41 - Morbid

Nights like these, Vincent knew that Cid needed someone to anchor him in the present, so he made damn certain that nothing took him away from his seat at Cid's side.

42 - Shipwreck

When Vincent first met Shera, he thanked her with quiet intensity for Cid's life.

43 - Socks

Vincent saw nothing amusing in them, but Cid didn't stop sniggering for fifteen minutes the first time he saw the thick woolen socks.

44 - Sand

When they visited the beach, (a well earned break), everyone got sand in _everything_, except for Vincent, as he perched on a rock overlooking the sea, and was very carefully not smug in any way, shape or form.

45 - Coin

Vincent used to keep a coin that had been scratched clean on both sides, it was symbolic of some thing or another, he'd forgotten over thirty years in stasis; Cid threw it out when he was on another of his cleaning rampages, and Vincent found, to his mild surprise, that he didn't really care.

46 - Guile

Watching Cid attempt guile was like watching Aeris try to be menacing, with even worse results; Vincent just knew they should have brought a camera.

47 - Eyelash

"Hold fuckin' still, ya big baby, it's just a damn eyelash," Cid grouched as he held down Vincent with one hand, and brought the tweezers closer with the other.

48 - Drive

Cloud was never, ever going to let Vincent drive his motorcycle again, and he was going to make very certain that Cid knew it was his own damn fault for encouraging him!

49 - Net

Vincent wonders sometimes if he's going to fall into Chaos and never return, but then he realizes he's got a safety net, made from cigarsmokebrighthairfriendlypunchessolidstrength, and he stops wondering, at least for a time.

50 – Destination

Vincent honestly doesn't know where he's going, or who he's going to be when he arrives, but he knows there will always be someone there for him, and that's something he's never, ever going to forget.

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**Notes:** For some bizarre reason, those were much, much easier to write than every other fic I've done thus far. I've decided that I like the single sentence format. Also concrit and reviews make me very very happy. 


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